National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney Wonder! VANCOUVER SECTION COMPLETED - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Monday 29 August – part eight: what’s that in your salad?
We took the elevator back down to ground level and it was fascinating to see the landscape change as we descended, although Joy wasn’t looking, as that sort of thing messes with her head.
Once back on street level, we walked back to the hotel, decidedly dragging by now.
We said goodbye once there, with Joy heading off to get a cab back to her hotel. It had been such a fun day with her and it was way too long since we last saw her. We must make sure not to leave it that long again.
We headed back to the room for some downtime and, around 6:20pm, we rang Barb and Bob and arranged to meet downstairs in the lobby for dinner. We had talked about going to the food court, but in the end, the hotel restaurant, the Cafe Pacifica won out, as the prices weren’t that bad. We left a message with front desk, so that Sue and Steve would know where we were.
Once I saw the menu, I decided to go for two appetisers, rather than one entree, as they all looked a bit heavy with pasta or potato for accompaniments. I went for the seafood chowder, which was very nice, but exceptionally creamy, so that would’ve been no good for Mark. :
Before the entrees arrived, I headed outside to go and get some photos of the cruise terminal and the area. It was beautiful out there, although starting to get a bit cold.
I loved the water feature that they had, which illustrated the Pacific ocean and the countries that border them. It was very neat.
For entree, I went for the Vancouver Island Dungeness crab and avocado, which was lovely, although the exotic fruit gazpacho really didn’t go too well together with it.
Mark had the linguini with the grilled prawns and chorizo sausage and really enjoyed it.
It was Barb who had the drama with her entree. She ordered the Cobb salad, which turned up with an added extra that you don’t normally get – thank goodness. It was a fruit fly, so they took it back to get another one made up for her, saying that the whole table could have desserts on them. Now that’s what I call service!
I wasn’t planning on having a dessert, but as it was free, we both went for it. I had a selection of ice cream, as none of the desserts really grabbed me, while Mark had this... I do not remember for the life of me what it was.
Cafe Pacifica
Appetiser 8 N/A
Entree 7½ 8½
Dessert 8 8
Service 8 8
Atmosphere 8½ 8½
Value for money N/A N/A
Average score: 8.11
We can’t tell you what the value for money rating was, as Barb and Bob very kindly paid for us, so we have no idea on that front. very much guys – it was a really great night.
All the while, we had done our best to keep an eye out for Sue and Steve and, as the time ticked on, we started to get more and more worried about where they were. Surely they should be here by now?
By the time we finished a very leisurely dinner, it was almost 9:00pm and I asked at reception and was told that they had checked in about half an hour earlier. We debated calling them, but decided that we should, as they had no way of contacting us, as none of our cell phones were on (we weren’t getting a signal with Tracfone and it was stupid money for Barb and Bob). We called up and they had indeed made it safe and sound, although it sounded like they’d had a heck of a day. Despite an invitation to come up and see their room on the 18th floor (how did they get that, while we both got the 9th? :whistle), we declined, figuring an early night was probably best for all of us.
We went and had a look at Barb and Bob’s room and their night-time harbour view, although oddly, there wasn’t much to see in the dark...
Then they had a look at ours, before we retired. As we’d only just finished eating, we sat up for a while and I caught up online, before we finally hit the sack. It had been a wonderful day with great friends in Vancouver and tomorrow, we would be off cruising.
The weather today was cloudy and overcast to begin with, but sunny later, with temperatures in the low 70s. The best thing today was seeing the views in and from Stanley Park. The worst thing today was the walk up to Prospect Point. The funniest thing today was Mark racing round to get into the various group shots. Today we tried taking the trolley tour around Vancouver And the result was it worked out really well for us. The most magical moment today was seeing all the fruit and vegetables at the Granville Island public market.
That sounded like a great end to a great day. Those skies sure looked ominous all day long though! I'm glad you didn't get rained upon!
__________________
Tanya
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Fortunately, I slept a lot better last night and only woke up just before 6:00am. Mark told me that he thought the Wonder was already in, as something had woken him up around 4:00am. It wasn’t long before I suggested heading out to get some photos of it.
We headed through the lobby and outside...
... and were surprised to find no Wonder there. We weren’t the only ones looking for it, as another couple were out there. We grabbed a few photos of the early morning....
Then we spotted something coming underneath the Lions Gate Bridge that was moving... the couple confirmed that it was indeed the Wonder! We watched and got lots of photos as she arrived, although we headed off before she was docked. It was lovely to see her coming in.
We headed back to the room for some downtime and a final check of the Internet before we checked out. Have I mentioned that every hotel should offer Internet access at a rate of $1.95/hour?
We called bell services and got them to collect the suitcases. It would be the last time we’d see them before our cruise. This is another bonus to staying here, they collect your luggage and take it straight to your ship. They said they’d be up immediately and they were as good as their word, literally showing up about two minutes later.
As we still had some time to kill before we met the others for breakfast, we headed out to see the Wonder, which was now docked.
We then decided to walk along and see the Olympic cauldron and the nearby digital Orca. It was a lovely area and we took lots of photos.
We also watched the seaplanes taking off, something which I’m absolutely fascinated by.
Finally, we wandered back towards the hotel, getting a few last shots on the way.
Love the digital orca sculpture--my DS16 said it looked like the sculptures in front of WoD.
And how cool to watch "your" ship dock in the early morning. Great pictures of it coing around "the bend".
And I'm betting that you meet up with friends in the next segment?
P.S. I'm glad that half naked guy chose to clothe his "bottom" half!! Phew!
What a busy and full day you had...but so many new experiences.
I love the excitement of the Wonder coming in! I was able to see the Dream come in last Spring (in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep) and it was such an awesome sight and feeling! I can't wait till you board!
We got up early and watched the Wonder come in for our cruise, too. Wasn't it amazing? The first peek of her smokestacks coming under the Lion's Gate Bridge gave me goosebumps! Of course, it was also my first time seeing her (or any DCL ship) in person.
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It was a fruit fly, so they took it back to get another one made up for her, saying that the whole table could have desserts on them. Now that’s what I call service! 
very much guys – it was a really great night. 
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Pixie Dust
We watched and got lots of photos as she arrived, although we headed off before she was docked. It was lovely to see her coming in. 
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